Israeli Drone Strikes Kill Seven Rescuers in Kfar Tibnit and Zaoutar Sharqieh

The Israeli army targeted rescuers in southern Lebanon overnight from Friday to Saturday, killing at least seven and wounding others as ground battles with Hezbollah continued in several border communities.

L'Orient-Le Jour said two rescuers, Mohammad Nassif Zhour from Yohmor al-Shaqif and Mohammad Tfayli from Kfar Tibnit, were killed and others wounded in an Israeli drone strike on vehicles belonging to Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Committee in Kfar Tibnit (Nabatieh).

Al-Jarida Al-Kuwaitiya

The same report said another Israeli strike hit an ambulance belonging to the al-Rissala Scouts, affiliated with the Amal movement, in Zaoutar Sharqieh (Nabatieh), killing at least five rescuers.

L'Orient-Le Jour also reported that Israeli airstrikes hit Haniyeh (Sour) at dawn Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding more than 10, most of them Syrian nationals, while another strike targeted a motorcycle in Haddatha (Bint Jbeil), seriously wounding the driver.

In parallel, the Lebanese-Italian Hospital administration said operations continued despite damage after Israeli airstrikes near the hospital in Tyre injured civilians and caused damage to the health facility, with the Lebanese Ministry of Health reporting 11 injuries including three Civil Defense personnel.

The United Nations condemned a wave of intensified Israeli airstrikes that targeted several areas in Lebanon, describing reports of hundreds of dead and wounded, including civilians, as 'horrific' just hours after announcing a ceasefire with Iran.

In a statement carried by شبكة رؤية الإخبارية, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, "the scale of killing and destruction in Lebanon today can only be described as horrific."

Al-Jazeera Net

Türk added that the attacks occurring just hours after reaching a ceasefire with Iran were 'unbelievable', warning they placed enormous pressure on a fragile peace that civilians urgently need.

The same report said Lebanese Civil Defense authorities put the death toll from Israeli airstrikes across the country at 254, and that Türk noted a nighttime strike hit a building opposite Hiram Hospital in the Abbasiyah area near Tyre, killing four people and damaging the hospital.

By contrast, the UN report said Israel stated it targeted more than 100 Hezbollah command centers, including military sites in Beirut, the Beqaa Valley, and southern Lebanon, while OHCHR documented bodies under rubble at a strike site in the capital.

Lebanon prepared for direct negotiations with Tel Aviv in Washington as Beirut awaited the outcome of talks, with the ceasefire ending at midnight and Israel having escalated with evacuation warnings and heavy airstrikes.

“The Israeli army targeted rescuers in southern Lebanon overnight from Friday to Saturday, killing at least seven and wounding others, as ground battles with Hezbollah continued in several border communities”

L'Orient-Le Jour

الشرق للأخبار said the Lebanese negotiating delegation was led by former United States ambassador Simon Karam and was pressing for a permanent ceasefire, while it described shelling targeting the hills of Mijdal Zoun in the Tyre district at dawn on Thursday.

The same report said the Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Health stated that an Israeli strike on the town of Arabsalim in the Nabatieh district resulted in six casualties, including three children and two women, and 12 others were injured.

It also said UNIFIL was increasingly concerned about Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers near UN locations, noting rising use of drones that sparked explosions inside and around its bases and endangered peacekeepers.

With the talks approaching, the report added that UNICEF said children in Lebanon were still paying the heaviest price, and that in the past seven days alone, despite the ceasefire agreement on April 17, reports indicated at least 59 children killed or injured.